Kobe leads Lakers' charge

Bryant scores 43; Sonics vanish in second half

By GARY WASHBURN, P-I REPORTER

Published
9:00 pm PST, Friday, March 31, 2006

The ultimate question for the Los Angeles Lakers in their quest to avoid being a first-round playoff elimination victim is whether Kobe Bryant has enough support to beat a formidable opponent four times.

The Sonics might not have been a legitimate enough litmus test Friday night at KeyArena because they never challenged anyone besides Bryant to beat them.

The perennial All-Star scored 43 points and the Sonics melted down again in the third quarter as the Lakers cruised to a 106-93 victory in front of 17,072.

Bryant made 17 of 38 shots while his next highest scoring teammates were Kwame Brown and Lamar Odom, who each had 12. Bryant dominated in the pivotal second half, while the Lakers defense shut down the sputtering Sonics after the break.

Seattle shot under 30 percent in the second half, good enough for 37 points. Bryant compiled 24 points in the second half by himself.

"We just couldn't make a shot in the second half," Sonics coach Bob Hill said. "Rashard (Lewis) couldn't make a shot. Luke (Ridnour) couldn't make a shot. Ray (Allen) couldn't make a shot. In many respects, we beat ourselves."

Consecutive 3-pointers by Allen and Lewis reduced the Lakers' lead to 89-83 with seven minutes left and suddenly the full house at KeyArena was reinvigorated.

Matters became more interesting when Sonics forward Mikki Moore was tied up by Devean George under the Sonics' basket and appeared to dislocate his left pinky finger. Because of Moore's injury, Lakers coach Phil Jackson got to choose who made the jump and he chose Ridnour.

By the time Jackson made his decision and Hill contemplated a timeout, Moore came running onto the floor after having his finger snapped into place. After a 20-second timeout, Moore came back onto the floor for the jump ball and Ridnour was forced to replace Earl Watson.

The Lakers roared back with an 11-4 run, six of those points scored by Bryant, who was limited to 8-for-29 shooting in the Sonics' 120-113 victory on March 12. Bryant said he looked forward to facing the Sonics again.

"I just wanted to go through them," he said. "They felt like they did a good job on me last game and tonight I was going to see the same schemes and I wanted to send them a message."

Allen, Bryant's rival and sometimes adversary, finished with 29 points on 10-for-27 shooting. He was hounded in the second half by the Lakers' team defense and missed 11 of 16 shots. When asked whether Bryant proved a point, Allen disagreed.

"It's never really about trying to shut him down," Allen said. "He is going to take a majority of his team's shots. Stopping him was not something we were trying to get caught up in."

While Allen was speaking with the media, Lewis remarked, "He took 38 shots."

At this point, you can almost sign off in permanent ink that the Sonics are going to falter in the third quarter. And Friday was a perfect example of why they have lost so many winnable games this season.

The Lakers outscored the Sonics 29-17 in the third quarter as Los Angeles converted 12 of 21 shots, while Seattle missed 17 of 21 attempts.

Bryant wasn't firing up shots against triple teams or unloading 30-footers while the rest of his teammates watched in awe. He was under control, picking his shots carefully as the Lakers began to pull away late in the quarter.

"He took jump shots with a hand in his face," Hill said. "He shot the ball a lot but when he had to make them he made his share."

Allen could have used some help, but no other Sonics player totaled more than 16 points. Lewis, who played despite nursing a sprained ankle, and Ridnour combined for 5-for-24 shooting. Ridnour missed all eight of his attempts and played just over nine minutes in the second half.

Hill said after Thursday's practice he wanted the players to forget their miserable performance Wednesday at Houston, a game in which they never led and trailed by 40 points in the third quarter.

The players responded to his pleas, beginning the game with a burst of energy as they led for nearly the entire first half. Allen, who scored just 19 points in the March 12 meeting because he was concentrating so much on stopping Bryant, scored eight of the team's first 17 points as the Sonics jumped out to a nine-point lead.

Matters were frustrating for Bryant, who was called for a technical for shoving the ball into the chest of official Greg Willard with 5:26 left in the half.